Favorite Children’s Books

Books have been part of my life as long as I can remember. I started “reading” to my pet rabbit, Spot. He sat patiently beside me as I repeated the story page by page, remembering the words as Mother and Daddy had read them to me. Spot dutifully poked his nose to the page as I pointed out features of the illustrations.
          Our house was filled with books, including classics that had belonged to a great aunt. Today, my home has a bookcase in every room. One shelf in my office is devoted to children’s books. Here is a sample of some favorites.
          Eloise in Moscow by Kay Thompson with illustrations by Hilary Knight (Simon & Schuster, 1959). I love the spunky Eloise and the tour of the great Russian city with a center foldout of Red Square. Russia was truly an obscure place in my childhood.
          The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Peterson (HarperCollins Children’s Books, 1978). The spunky Gilly Hopkins, a child in foster care, grabbed my interest from the first page and would not let me go. In 1979, the book received the National Book Award for Children’s Literature, a Christopher Award, a Jane Addams Award and was selected a Newbery Honor book.
          The Napping House by Audrey Wood, illustrated by Don Wood (Harcourt Brace & Company, 1984). The word choices and rhythm make this picture book a delight to read aloud. I love to linger over the humourous illustrations in appealing bright pastels. Spot would have loved this one!
          Golem written and illustrated by David Wisniewski (Clarion Books 1996). The wonderful cut paper illustrations drew me to this retelling of a Jewish legend. The book was the 1997 Caldecott Medal winner.
          Girl in Blue by Ann Rinaldi (Scholastic Press, 2001) is a perfect read as we mark the 150th anniversary of the Civil War’s beginning. Disguised as a young man, fifteen-year-old Sarah Louisa Wheelock runs away and joins the Union Army to avoid an unwanted marriage. Her charade is later discovered but she is recruited by the Pinkerton Detective Ageny as an undercover operative in the home of a suspected Southern spy. This middle grade story is an exciting peek into civil war times.
          What is your favorite children’s book?

Learn more about Children’s Book Week

Chipeta Goes e-book

Just in time for Christmas, Filter Press announces that Chipeta: Ute Peacemaker is now available in e-book format for both Kindle and Nook.          
          This biography of a Ute Indian woman is perfect for middle grade students or readers of any age interested in Native Americans or intriguing and courageous women.
          

Career Adventures in Books

  The old book is missing its dust jacket [pictured], its once teal green cover faded around the edges and spine. Its pages, aged to the browning golden shade of the fallen leaves outside my window, offer a faint scent like aged chocolate. The title Jane, Stewardess of the Air Lines caught my eye and I brought it up from the basement for an evening read.
          Author Ruthe S. Wheeler laced her 1934 fictional account of America’s first women flight attendants with appealing characters and enough crises to keep young readers breathless. It was the factual details that caught my attention:
• The first airline stewardesses were all registered nurses.
• The tri-motor biplane had room for 14 passengers seated in “comfortable reclining chairs, very much like those in a railroad coach.”
• Travellers were given a packet of cotton to stuff in their ears and gum to chew during takeoff.
• Stewardesses prepared sandwiches, snacks, and beverages (coffee, tea, hot chocolate) in a kitchen at the airfield and carried them onboard to be served to passengers.
• Stewardesses were paid $125 per month and furnished with uniforms, including hat, shoes and stockings.
          The story is based on historic facts. According to Michael Grace in an article for Cruising the Past, Ellen Church, a registered nurse who had taken flying lessons, became the first airline stewardess when she joined Boeing Air Transport in 1930. Eight nurses were hired and trained for a three-month trial period. On May 15, 1930, Ms. Church made the first stewardess-attended flight from Oakland to Chicago in a Boeing tri-motor.
          Women hired for these positions, in addition to being nurses, were between the ages of 20 and 26, no taller than 5’ 4” and weighed no more than 118 pounds. They also had to be single, “a rule that lasted for most airlines into the 1960s.”
          Jane, Stewardess of the Air Lines was one of many career books for girls. View an exhibit on Girls’ Series Books Rediscovered: Nancy Drew and Friends . Ruthe Wheeler also wrote: Helen in The Editor’s Chair, Janet Hardy in Radio City, and Janet Hardy in Hollywood.

Trade on the Taos Trail

Trade on the Taos Trail (Vanishing Horizons, 2010) is a visual treat and informative work that will appeal to all ages. Author Deborah Martinez Martinez captures the theme of the book in her introduction:

”The trade goods have changed over time but the idea of trade is the same from the caveman to today’s Wall Street stock traders. One person has what the other person wants…the two parties exchange goods or services.”

          This engaging multicultural book explores the trade-based economy of the American Southwest between 1598 and 1859. Each two-page spread is artfully arranged with photos (both historical and contemporary), illustrations by Robert W. Pacheco, maps, lists and text. Martinez focuses on major trade routes and three trade centers that are now National Historic Sites–Taos Pueblo and Taos village, El Pueblo Trading Post and Bent’s Old Fort.
          Often overlooked in historical works, the lives of children who lived at the trading posts are featured. The children came from diverse cultures including Native American, Spanish/Mexican, African American and European American and most contributed to the work of the community.
          Back matter includes an illustrated historical timeline, information about living history interpreters, a reference page with books and websites, and a glossary. The content meets fourth and fifth grade educational standards for social studies, history, geography, economics and civics.

Summer Reading #5: Any time, any place

I was a child who never left home without a book. Partly, I loved to read. Partly, it was a survival plan.
          My parents were 35 and 40 when I was born and I was an only child. Mom and Dad’s friends tended to be about their ages but most had married younger and their children were nearly grown. As the only child at a dinner table surrounded by adults, I became quite adept at sitting quietly in my chair, tuning out chattering voices and escaping into a book.
          In the summertime, I liked to ride along with Dad when he made short sales trips. He called on dairies so there was ice cream involved! I could read in the car or in the reception room of a busy office, undisturbed by ringing telephones or people coming and going.
          Those childhood experiences were good training. Today, I can escape into a good book in a noisy restaurant, a busy airport, a crowded subway train, and, once, in the midst of a cheering crowd at an Air Force Academy football game.

Summer Reading #4: Sweet Memories

Forgotten treasure arrived in my mailbox recently. My childhood neighbor and lifetime friend, Sharon, returned a book to me. She found Little Sugar Bear (Samuel Lowe Company, Kenosha, WI, 1952) while sorting more than fifty years of accumulated keepsakes in her parents house.
     My name is written on the first page in my mother’s distinctive script. No doubt it was better kept with Sharon’s family since my children’s books were long ago given away.
     Inside the front cover is an image of the bear with head and feet that pivot to make a paper doll bear. (The head survived with the aid of some tape but the feet disappeared.) Turning the pages changes the bear’s clothing to fit the story printed on the opposite page.
      I was struck by the simplicity of this book and its timelessness. It is as appealing today as it was so long ago.

Summer Reading #3: Airports

During a recent layover on B Concourse at Denver International Airport, I made a visual survey of how travelers spent their waiting time. I visited four gates where passengers were bound for Dallas, Santa Barbara, Toronto and Wichita plus a general waiting area in the middle of the concourse. Here is what I observed:

30.8% watched other people, talked to a companion, or slept
27.7% read a book
18.5% used a cell phone to talk, text, or play games
15.4% used a laptop computer
  4.6% wrote using pen and paper
  3.0% listened to audio devices
In addition, 9.0% used two or more devices at one time

Of those reading books, all held paperbacks. No Kindles or similar devices were in use.

Summer Reading #2

Browsing in an airport bookstore between flights, I bought a copy of The Best American Short Stories 2009. Describing the challenges and pleasures of selecting just twenty stories from more than 200 originally published by American and Canadian periodicals, Editor Alice Sebold says, “Was the judging process scientific? Not in the least. Does this volume include stories that every writer – being honest – would give his or her eyeteeth to have written? You bet.”
          And, Ms. Sebold was right. I was so captivated that the jolt of aircraft wheels meeting runway came as a mid-story surprise.
          After finishing each story, I read the author’s profile and personal statement, discretely tucked into the back of the book. There I learned that among the well-known and much-published, writing professors and recipients of numerous distinguished writing awards, are Steve De Jarnatt and Namwali Serpell whose first published short stories made the cut for this volume. What a glimpse of possibility for all writers!

Summer Reading

Sitting on the patio with a cup of tea and Portland Magazine (University of Portland), a cool breeze and absolutely nothing on the day’s agenda – what a perfect summer morning. Editor Bryan Doyle’s intriguing word chains lead me to contemplate “otter words,” a childlike exercise in imagining what an otter might call “trout and rain and minnows and ice and fur that has been warmed by the sun to just the right sheen and shimmer…” When I emerge from otter thought, snipits from a professor’s journal open a window to life on the other side of the world, moments experienced in Jordan and Lebanon. And I end by reading a profile of a retiring botany professor known for his ability to demonstrate the dance of the Blue-Footed Boobie.
            The best part is that only took me through page 7 and I have 41 delicious pages to enjoy on yet another summer morning.

Books for Christmas

I am always fascinated by what other people read. Owning an online used bookstore offers me a glimpse into the out-of-bookstores and out-of-print books people are buying. Here are a few recent choices:

Simplified Fly Fishing, J.R. Slaymaker, Harper & Row, 1969
Spaghetti for Breakfast, Sesyle Joslin, Harcourt Brace, 1965 (children’s)
Six Thinking Hats, Edward de Bono, Little Brown, 1985 (children’s)
The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath, Harper & Row, 1971

Need a gift for a member of the Greatest Generation? I spotted these in our collection for under-$25:

Christmas With Ed Sullivan, McGraw-Hill, 1959, hardcover with dustjacket. Christmas memories by Ed Sullivan and his many famous friends. Clark Gable remembers spending Christmas 1952 in Uganda with Ava Gardner, Grace Kelly and John Ford while filming Mogambo. Carolos P. Romulo writes about Christmas 1941 in Manila under attack. Ed shares a story about Richard Cardinal Spellman and his 1954 Christmas visits to American troops in Korea. Short stories by Pearl Buck, Truman Capote, Damon Runyan and others are included. Very good condition, chips and tears on edges of dust jacket, some yellowing, price marks in pencil on front fly page, pencil signature and date on pages 153 and 191.

Sixty Years: LIFE Magazine-60th Anniversary Celebration 1936-1996, Time Life Books, 1996, hardcover with dustjacket. A timecapsule of photos with brief text. As new condition with a few creases on the dust jacket.
 
Latest Herman, Jim Unger, Andrews, McMeel & Parker,
1981, paperback. A collection of popular cartoons featuring the slouchy characters and offbeat humor of Jim Unger. The Herman cartoons were syndicated from 1975 through 1992. As new condition, small printed “Grandpa Greenwood” in ink on flyleaf.

View these and other books